Cuba (Fulgencio Batista)
Cuba led by Fulgencio Batista is a custom civilization mod by Uighur_Caesar, with contributions from Hoop Thrower, Poom, DarthKyofu, Urdnot_Scott, and Jinzor. This mod requires Brave New World. Overview 'Cuba' Cuba is the largest Caribbean island. It was once inhabited by the Taino, or Arawak people, among others. Since its colonization in the 15th century by the Spanish, Cuba has been a key part of the New World colonies and a key strategic place in the Caribbean. Its prominence in the region, its economy and its proximity to the territorial United States have made it a prominent colonial and postcolonial nation through the Age of Discovery, the Latin American struggle, and the Cold War. Cuba was a Spanish colony for centuries, from the late 1400s to 1898. Christophor Colombus arrived with his three ships in 1492. Twenty years later, Spanish settlements began to pop up. Unlike other Caribbean colonies, over the centuries Cuba became quite urbanized, and had a diversified economy. Cuba had a substantial slave population. Cuban planters benefitted from the successful slave revolt in Haiti, in that they were able to anticipate similar unrest in Cuba. While this helped to perpetuate the institution of slavery in the colony and indeed the colonial rule itself, 19th Century Cuba had a significantly higher amount of free persons of color than other slaveholding states at the time. Cuba’s independence took much longer than other Latin American nations. In the second half of the 1800s, about forty years after all other Latin American nations began to become independent, Cuban planter Carlos Manuel de Cespedes launched an uprising known as the Ten Years War, which did not end in independence, but did win the Cubans a promise of greater autonomy from Spain. Slavery was abolished in 1875. Cuba finally won its independence in 1898, with the help of exiled dissident Jose Marti, a writer who penned his Manifesto of Montecristi before his death in a battle in 1895. Marti is regarded as Cuba’s national hero. The Americans became involved in the conflict when their battleship, the Maine, exploded in the harbor in Havana. American journalist William Randolph Hearst’s (who supported the Cuban rebels) sensationalist coverage of the incident helped to bring the conflict to a head in the Spanish-American War, which ended in the 1898 Treaty of Paris, granting Cuba its independence after four centuries. The first few decades of Cuban independence were rather prosperous, but prosperity was confined to the wealthy. Especially during the rule of Fulgencio Batista, Cuba was known for its tourism industry – both Frank Sinatra and the American Mafia were influential in Havana in the 1950s. Cuba was relatively well-developed for the region, thanks to its more urban organization. The Cuban Revolution took place in 1959. Fidel Castro, a militant student activist in the 1940s, attempted to start a violent revolution through his organization MR 26-7. After a failed attack on Moncada Barracks, Castro was imprisoned but eventually pardoned. Fleeing to Mexico, Castro fell in with Argentine Marxist Che Guevara. Together, Castro and Guevara recruited allies and trained on guerrilla warfare. The pair, along Castro’s brother Raul and Camilo Cienfuegos, returned to Cuba in the mid 1950s. Engaging in guerrilla warfare, MR 26-7 engaged in agitation in the cities while Castro’s group recruited local peasants and raided army bases in the jungles and mountains. Batista’s regime crumbled under a faltering military and collapsing public support. An American-backed right-wing coup deposed him – but the junta was itself deposed in 1959, when Castro and Guevara took Havana. 'Fulgencio Batista' Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar (January 16, 1901 – August 6, 1973) was a Cuban military officer and politician who served as the elected President of Cuba from 1940 to 1944, and as its U.S.-backed military dictator from 1952 to 1959, before being overthrown during the Cuban Revolution. Batista initially rose to power as part of the 1933 Revolt of the Sergeants, which overthrew the provisional government of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Quesada. He then appointed himself chief of the armed forces, with the rank of colonel, and effectively controlled the five-member "pentarchy" that functioned as the collective head of state. He maintained this control through a string of puppet presidents until 1940, when he was himself elected President of Cuba on a populist platform. He then instated the 1940 Constitution of Cuba and served until 1944. After finishing his term he lived in Florida, returning to Cuba to run for president in 1952. Facing certain electoral defeat, he led a military coup against President Carlos Prío Socarrás that preempted the election. Back in power, and receiving financial, military, and logistical support from the United States government, Batista suspended the 1940 Constitution and revoked most political liberties, including the right to strike. He then aligned with the wealthiest landowners who owned the largest sugar plantations, and presided over a stagnating economy that widened the gap between rich and poor Cubans. Eventually it reached the point where most of the sugar industry was in U.S. hands, and foreigners owned 70% of the arable land. As such, Batista's repressive government then began to systematically profit from the exploitation of Cuba's commercial interests, by negotiating lucrative relationships with both the American Mafia, who controlled the drug, gambling, and prostitution businesses in Havana, and with large U.S.-based multinational companies who were awarded lucrative contracts. To quell the growing discontent amongst the populace—which was subsequently displayed through frequent student riots and demonstrations—Batista established tighter censorship of the media, while also utilizing his Bureau for the Repression of Communist Activities secret police to carry out wide-scale violence, torture and public executions. These murders mounted in 1957, as Fidel Castro gained more publicity and influence. Many people were killed, with estimates ranging from hundreds to about 20,000 people killed. Catalyzing the resistance to such tactics, for two years (December 1956 – December 1958) Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement and other nationalist rebelling elements led an urban and rural-based guerrilla uprising against Batista's government, which culminated in his eventual defeat by rebels under the command of Che Guevara at the Battle of Santa Clara on New Year's Day 1959. Batista immediately fled the island with an amassed personal fortune to the Dominican Republic, where strongman and previous military ally Rafael Trujillo held power. Batista eventually found political asylum in Oliveira Salazar's Portugal, where he first lived on the island of Madeira and then in Estoril, outside Lisbon. He was involved in business activities in Spain and was staying there in Guadalmina near Marbella at the time of his death from a heart attack on August 6, 1973. 'Dawn of Man' "Greetings Colonel Batista! You presided over the Republic of Cuba, first as a military strongman behind puppet presidents, then an elected president yourself, and finally as an outright military dictator. You experienced popularity during your first term, introducing a progressive constitution for your time and retired peacefully to the United States. However, the influence you exerted in Cuba was waning and thus you returned to run for president in 1952. Though you had lost the trust of the people, trailing a distant third in the polls, you still had power over the military and used them to usurp power. Your 7 year reign as dictator was defined by rampant corruption, with the Sicilian Mafia having large influence in the Cuban economy and the military being full of your supporters, regardless of how inept they actually were. While Havana was the jewel of the Caribbean and experienced large amounts of tourism, the rest of Cuba lagged behind in poverty. Your corrupt rule would ultimately come to an end in 1959, with Fidel Castro's communist rebels taking control of the government. Dictador bandolero y farandulero, the Cuban people need someone to remind them of the past, which wasn't too great admittedly, but hey, at least it wasn't the Special Period. Can you bring tourists back to the capital and fill the country's coffers? Can you defend Cuba from the viles of hypocritical, self-destructive ideologies? Can you build a civilization that will stand the test of time?" 'Introduction: '"Welcome to Havana! I am Colonel Fulgencio Batista, president of Cuba. What would you like to see first, the casino or the swimming pool?" 'Defeat: '"Ah crap! Well that was fun while it lasted. Take care of the rug in the master bedroom, it was a gift from the Shah for my 50th birthday. Oh and make sure you're careful with the suits that Idi Amin bought me, they're dry clean only." Unique Attributes Strategy Mod Support Full Credits List *''Poom, Jinzor, DarthKyofu, Urdnot'': Art *''JFD, Uighur_Caesar'': Code *''Hoop Thrower'': Design *''Uighur_Caesar'': All else Category:Uighur Caesar Category:Cuba Category:Civilizations with Male leaders Category:Colonial Cultures Category:All Civilizations